Portugal and Ireland are playing live in one of the last World Cup friendly matches before Brazil and Cristiano Ronaldo and his return are the focus as the match from MetLife Stadium starts up past 8 pm ET in New Jersey and the live stream comes streaming from beIN Sport as the team prepares for their WC schedule in Group G with the United States, Germany and Ghana to begin and they will need Ronaldo at full strength.
Portugal comes into the tournament with a very tough schedule and they could be one of the teams to make it out of Group G, but it won't be easy, as that is the group of death in this tournament. Having Ronaldo healthy is a main issue for the team and if he cannot get going in the tournament, the team has no chance to advance to the next stage. While the United States is still not as strong as other nations, they are a hard team to play and with Ghana and Germany as the other teams in the group, there is not much room for error on any side.
Ireland is a tough team to play and they did not end up qualifying for the World Cup after coming in fourth place in their group and they played with Germany in that set. Portugal comes in hoping to get Ronaldo some action with his teammates and that will be just as big as his health, as he cannot be an effective player when he is alone on the pitch and he needs to work with his team to get his rhythm and timing together. Portugal and the United States are matching up in the Amazon for their game and that will be tough simply for the travel and the conditions at the stadium.
Portugal plays a last game in the United States and then heads to Brazil and they are coming into things after beating Mexico on Friday in a friendly and that was a nice performance against a World Cup bound team. Ireland had been beat up in qualifying, losing to Germany in two matchups and now they will face off against Portugal and that comes after a draw against Costa Rica on Saturday and they are a team heading into the World Cup.
Portugal opens their schedule with a very tough game against Germany and the German side comes in as one of the favorites in the entire tournament. The game against the US comes on June 22 and then the team will finish off against Ghana on June 26 to end the group stage. Ronaldo is expected to return for this game and it is not certain how much he will play and the team comes in having won against Ireland three times in the last three matchups since 2000 and now this will be another chance to add to that total. Ronaldo has appeared in over 100 games for the team and this will be very important, as he has not been abler to play fully since the Champions League final with Real Madrid, which saw him score a goal to help get the trophy.
Check here for the Portugal and Ireland live coverage from the World Cup friendly schedule.